Sinkhole Sequel: Corvette Museum Updates the Fate of the Fallen Eight

About six months ago, a sinkhole swallowed eight cars at the National Corvette Museum In Bowling Green Kentucky. Early in the morning of February 12, the floor beneath the Skydome area of the museum gave way, collecting eight historic Corvettes in its wake. The resulting sinkhole measured 60′ long by 45′ wide, and up to 30′ deep. The event was captured on security cameras, and the video footage was promptly and widely circulated, including a post in my classic car blog on February 13th. Here a link to that piece, which includes several videos of the sinkhole collapse taken from different angles, as well as coverage of a press conference at the museum.

The interest in the story was widespread, going far beyond the boundaries of just Corvette or car enthusiasts. To date, the security camera footage showing the collapse of the floor in the museum Skydome has been viewed over 8,000,000 times on YouTube.

At the time the event occurred, discussions between readers and myself in my blog raised the merits of leaving at least some of the effected cars unrestored, as a reminder of this strange event, and as an ongoing attraction at the museum, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend. That view wasn’t unique, of course, and when the Corvette museum provided an update on the fate of the eight cars in question recently, their plan of action showed that they’re on the same wavelength.

Three of the cars that took the plunge will be restored. Chevy says that the 2009 ZR1 prototype (nicknamed the Blue Devil) will be restored, along with the 1-millionth Corvette produced (a 1992 convertible), and a black, 1962 Corvette. The remaining five cars will be kept in their as-recovered state, as part of a future display at the museum. All eight recovered vehicles were initially placed in a special display at the facility. That exhibit and the news of the event helped boost visitor traffic by nearly 60%, in the first four months following the incident.

Here’s a gallery of photos taken as some of the cars were extracted from the sinkhole. The first Corvette to emerge was the “Blue Devil”. In spite of its fall, the car was started and driven out of the museum. The second car to be rescued wasn’t as lucky. As you can see from the photographs, the 40th anniversary Corvette sustained significant damage.

8 Responses

Hi Dan. I’ve been following this on the NCM web site. As you said at the time, the sinkhole has actually been an economic boon to NCM. (One of my co-workers said “I didn’t know there was a Corvette Museum!”) I think their current approach is a good one – restore the three cars mentioned, leave the rest as recovered, and leave a portion of the sinkhole open and on display, with the option to do complete repairs to the sky dome in the future. It’s still on my bucket list to get down to Bowling Green someday.

Hi Bill: I think a lot of people didn’t know there was a Corvette museum before this event. I have wanted to go there too. The one time I actually made plans to include it in a trip to that area, the museum was closed for some type of renovations (not sinkhole related).

I read in the Hemmings web site last evening that the sinkhole will now be filled and the skydome repaired. Apparently the estimated costs for additional infrastructure (temperature, humidity control, ventilation, permanent safety barriers, structural, etc.)that would be required to keep the sinkhole open are estimated to be prohibitive. The 3 Corvettes mentioned will be restored and the rest displayed “as recovered”. They are considering a sinkhole “exhibit” of sorts, which should be doable with all the video from security cameras as well as their webcams.

A lot of the comments on the HMN blog were not kind. Apparently a lot of people believe the entire NCM should be pushed into the sinkhole before it is covered over!

Makes sense. I never thought that they’d leave the sinkhole unrepaired, just leave a couple of the damaged cars as is, for PR purposes. Part of any museum’s charge is to figure out ways to boost their visitor count. Save the money that would be spent on restoring the selected cars, and use that to fund the exhibit on the sinkhole and its aftermath. Might as well role with the misfortune and try to capitalize on it for the benefit of the museum.